The candidate also risk arrest by the Police for obtaining registration in a fraudulent way and also lying to a public officer that he is a duly registered voter and forgery.

A statement from the Commission says that the decision was effected because Gondwe obtained registration certificate fraudulently and his same does not appear on the list of registered voters.

The Commission has on July 28, 2015 received 30 nominations and launched the official campaign the following day. However, in a statement released on Saturday, MEC said it has accepted 29 candidates to contest and disqualified one for electoral fraud.

Asked why the issues could not be detected during receipt of nominations, MEC spokesperson, Sangwani Mwafulirwa said Gondwe presented a copy of a registration certificate that looked original but does not appear in the MEC database.

He said a candidate can be disqualified at any stage of the electoral process before voting if information avails which proves his ineligibility.

The statement from MEC explains that the Peoples Party will not be given a second chance to identify another candidate as nomination by substation is not acceptable.

“The Commission also upheld the precedent and guidance made during the May 2014 Tripartite Elections that nomination by substitution is not applicable under the current legal framework.

“This means that the Peoples Party will not have a candidate in Chibanja Ward By-elections. The candidate has, however, been given the opportunity to appeal with the High Court of Malawi,” reads the statement.

This development if not reversed will mean reduction of Peoples Party candidates from five to four. The other party that has field five candidates is the Malawi Congress Party.

The Democratic Progressive Party has four candidates, the United Democratic Front two, Mafunde three, Aford two, Umodzi one and there are eight independent candidates.

Tikamati atumbuka ndiokuba mumayesa bodza. Most certificates (be it academic, professional, licences, concessions, etc) held by these northerners are in fact fake. They need verification. Try it. You will be shoked .